Reform" does not work. Looting the workers does not create prosperity, it only helps transfer it from one sector of the economy (which creates it) to another (which wastes a good chunk of it, but given how few people share the spoils, it's still worth it for them, obviously).

You make it sound like they didn't know that to start with. It's a feature, not a fault. Wealth capture is good for the few and seeing as they're the ones making policy, what's not to like ?

Course it's no way to democratically govern a country for the common good, but who's trying to do that these days ?

keep to the Fen Causeway